Chuck Nowlin: WZLX Morning Radio, Rock Music History & Broadcasting from Emmanuel College with Buzz Knight

Summary

Podcast Summary: takin' a walk with Chuck Nowlin (WZLX), Hosted by Buzz Knight

Episode Title: Chuck Nowlin: WZLX Morning Radio, Rock Music History & Broadcasting from Emmanuel College
Release Date: December 5, 2025
Recorded Live at: Emmanuel College, Boston, MA

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Episode Overview

In this special live edition of the takin' a walk podcast, host Buzz Knight sits down with iconic Boston radio personality Chuck Nowlin. The conversation traverses Nowlin’s multi-decade radio career—from his beginnings in Worcester, breaks in Miami, to his celebrated era at WZLX, and his recent move into Boston’s morning radio spotlight. Along the way, they reflect on Boston’s enduring music scene, memorable celebrity encounters, industry changes, and what it means to truly connect with listeners. The recording takes place before a live audience of students and features a lively Q&A portion.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

Chuck Nowlin’s Journey to Radio Stardom

• Early Inspiration & Family Dynamics

  • Nowlin reflects on the impact his father had on his career choices and wishes he could "take a walk" with him to reconcile their past.

    "I lost my dad when I was 25 years old...I'd like to take a walk with him and say it all worked out okay." (05:05, Chuck Nowlin)

  • He studied Economics but was drawn to radio, sneaking peeks at the onsite studio, and ultimately enrolled at Connecticut School of Broadcasting.
  • Early jobs included running religious tapes at a local AM station.

• Radio Career Beginnings

  • First significant role at WAAF in Worcester, later moving to Miami for a position at 97 GTR—only to see the station's format (and his job) abruptly change.
  • In Miami, adopted the on-air name "Chuck Michaels," an experience he describes with comedic chagrin.

    "It's so awful. Chuck Michaels, yeah..." (12:07, Chuck Nowlin)

• Return to Boston & Rise at WZLX

  • After Miami, Nowlin returned to Boston to take on afternoon drive at WZLX, a transition credited to then-consultant John Schomby.

Love of Music and Broadcasting

• First Musical Connection

  • Influenced by his older brother’s record collection and WBZ’s Larry Glick show:

    "He would just tell UFO stories and ghost stories all night...it scared the crap out of me. But it was fascinating." (14:25, Chuck Nowlin)

• The Power of Live Radio

  • Buzz Knight emphasizes Nowlin’s preparedness and connection with listeners:

    “He was always like, spot on in terms of what he knew he was going to say. Prepared. No, very well prepared. Once again, I knew I had someone…tremendous confidence to be able to do the work with the audience and then ultimately...with the advertisers.” (17:17, Buzz Knight)

• ‘Chuck’s Bar and Grill’: Bringing Listeners Together

  • Legendary Friday remote broadcasts from local bars, which made radio interactive and community-centered.

    "We used to do them almost every Friday...it was a lot of fun getting out there and meeting people." (18:03, Chuck Nowlin)

Fast Five: Chuck Nowlin Rapid-Fire Q&A

(19:24–24:05)

• Desert Island Disc: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon
• Most Underrated Classic Rock Band: The Black Crowes

  “Christopher Robinson, great vocalist...he could front any band.” (19:47, Chuck Nowlin)

• Best Concert: Boston Strong at TD Garden post-Marathon bombing

  “That audience...sold out, was so loud and so together...the city came together so much.” (20:20, Chuck Nowlin)

• Vinyl, CD or Streaming:
  • Prefers vinyl for sound richness, explaining generational differences in how music is consumed.
• Plan B Career:
  • Nearly became a postal carrier; quit after repeated dog bites and lack of fulfillment.

Transition to WZLX Morning Drive

(27:21–33:02)

• Why Now for Mornings?
  • Earlier in his career, resisted moving to mornings (despite Buzz Knight’s urging), but after his kids grew up and the pandemic changed station dynamics, the timing felt right.
  • Chemistry with new team members Danielle Murr and Tyler was immediate:

    "It just felt right. It's just this dance that you do with three people talking on the radio...It's a lot of fun. I'm having fun." (28:25–30:37, Chuck Nowlin)

Industry Tales & Celeb Encounters

(33:36–41:15)

• Celebrity Interviews:
  • Jon Stewart: “He was just so spontaneous and really funny. Just off the cuff.” (35:09, Chuck Nowlin)
  • Ed McMahon: A lighthearted brush in Hollywood; McMahon gamely gives a dispirited “Hi-O!”
  • Rock legends: Interviews with Robert Plant (“so humble and nice”) and Jimmy Page (“not nice at all...seemed insulted at everything that I asked him”—plus a spot-on impression).
  • Keith Richards described as warm and humble; would love to interview Mick Jagger but hears he can be "aristocratic.”
  • Comedians: Bill Burr and Dennis Leary praised for being “very funny, very quick”—but notes comedians can struggle on-air without a live audience.

Audience Q&A Highlights

Engaging with Listeners

• Calls are a big part of the show, especially in the mornings. Some callers are “really hammered,” others use colorful language, making the “dump button” essential.

  “I'm shocked in the morning how often I have to use that. Maybe it's because people are pissed off, driving into work.” (43:51, Chuck Nowlin)

Changing Industry Landscape

• Music Industry Evolution

  • From labels doing everything for artists, to the rise of DIY self-promotion.

    “Artists are mainly on their own. They're self-promoting, which has to be so tough...now you’re on Spotify and you get fractions of pennies for a play.” (45:50, Chuck Nowlin)

  • Modern artists must tour and leverage social media for success; classic rock benefits from TV/film placement.

• Targeting Younger Audiences

  "Even though...there's a certain target audience, always go deliberately younger than your target." (50:51, Buzz Knight)

• The Future of Radio

  • Emphasis on streaming (iHeartRadio app), expectation of terrestrial radio’s gradual decline as automakers drop FM.

  “I think eventually terrestrial radio will go away...it will just become a streaming thing." (52:02, Chuck Nowlin)

Career & Podcasting Advice

• Public vs Commercial Radio: Commercial pays more, but public radio is vital in the community despite financial struggles.

• Starting in Media/Podcasting:

  "If you really have a passion for something, just go for it. Give it a shot, because if you don't, you might look back and regret..." (41:42, Chuck Nowlin) “Resilience, passion, consistency...there's something called pod fade...find a niche and have fun with it.” (54:20–55:40, Buzz Knight)

• Radio Listening Habits: Both panelists tune to college (WERS), classic rock (ZLX), news (WBZ), and sports stations.

On Being an Introvert in Broadcasting

• Nowlin describes his on-air persona as a “different person” from his off-air self—a trait he shares with celebrities like Howard Stern and Ozzy Osbourne.

  “When I'm on the radio, I'm a different person...I can get up at the Garden in front of 16,000 people and introduce a band, and it's great. But it's a different feeling. I don't know. It's kind of a switch that you do.” (57:13, Chuck Nowlin)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Early Family Support:

  “We did not have the best relationship...I’d like to take a walk with him and say it all worked out okay.” (05:05, Chuck Nowlin)

• On Real Radio Connection:

  "When you do a radio show, you're in a room by yourself, talking into a piece of metal. You get out there and you meet people...” (18:25, Chuck Nowlin)

• On Career Longevity:

  "For such an insecure business...I've been in the same place for three decades. That's crazy." (32:46, Chuck Nowlin)

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Useful Timestamps

• Main interview begins: [02:43]
• Chuck's "walk with anyone" answer: [04:48]
• Early radio breaks/WAAF: [10:05]
• Miami experience & name change: [11:09]
• Arrival at WZLX: [13:15]
• Initial music/radio influences: [14:19]
• Fast Five Q&A: [19:24]
• Boston Strong concert memory: [20:04]
• Return from break, discussion on moving to mornings: [27:21]
• Interview stories: [33:36]
• Q&A session with students: [42:45]–[59:01]
• Chuck on the introvert experience: [57:06]

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Closing Thoughts

The live audience contributed insightful questions about adapting to industry upheavals, targeting new listeners, public vs. commercial radio, podcasting, and thriving as an introvert in broadcasting. Both Chuck and Buzz offered practical and inspirational advice, candidly sharing stories of missteps and triumphs. The episode stands as a loving tribute to Boston’s music/radio legacy, the irreplaceable magic of local personalities, and the enduring importance of finding joy—and authenticity—in one’s work.

Transcript

[Buzz Knight]

Taking a Walk well, I'm Buzz Knight and I'm the host of the Taking A Walk podcast and I'm so excited to be live in front of an audience for the first time recording the Taking A Walk podcast. We are at the wonderful Emanuel College in fantastic Boston, Massachusetts. I couldn't be any happier, and I'm even happier that the person I'm going to be interviewing on this Taking A Walk episode is a legendary disc jocke in Boston, Massachusetts. I dare say, call him iconic. He has been on WZOX 100.7, Boston's classic rock station, for decades and recently he has moved into morning drive, the big spot on the radio station. Next we're gonna speak to Chuck Nolan on Takin A Walk.

[Sophie Cunningham]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Chuck Nolan]

Guaranteed Human.

[Chase Sapphire Reserve Sponsor]

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[Sophie Cunningham]

This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at don't sleep on OSA.com this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

[Chuck Nolan]

Taking a Walk.

[Buzz Knight]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome Chuck Nolan to the Taking A Walk podcast.

[Chuck Nolan]

Wow. Thank you.

[Buzz Knight]

That was fantastic. Thunderous applause. First of all, what did you think?

[Chuck Nolan]

It was a lot more thunderous than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

Thank you. Theatre was fantastic. It's so great to be with you, Chuck. We have a lot of stories to tell. I'm so happy that I was able to mildly convince you to come over here and do this episode. It didn't take much cajoling, by the way.

[Chuck Nolan]

No, no. I thought it was a bit much.

[Buzz Knight]

That you had asked for the limousine service.

[Chuck Nolan]

And have the rider making sure I have my special beverages and everything ready.

[Buzz Knight]

Did you get everything that you needed?

[Chuck Nolan]

I did. Thank you.

[Buzz Knight]

Everything to your satisfaction, Mr. Nolan?

[Chuck Nolan]

I'm ready to go.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes. I have to say, Chuck looks identical to the moment that I first met him. He looks, he looks just.

[Chuck Nolan]

That was a long time ago.

[Buzz Knight]

You look absolutely the same. I'm sure I do too. Right.

[Chuck Nolan]

Buzz was this kind during contract negotiations too. He was just like this.

[Buzz Knight]

My favorite time of the year and years, right?

[Chuck Nolan]

Yes, absolutely.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. Well, we have a lot to talk about. I'm so happy for you. Now moving into morning drive on wzlx. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about your career, your storied career, which has taken on a new chapter, which I think is fantastic. Coming out of the radio business, I love being able to certainly talk to my dear friends from radio on the podcast, talk to musicians in general, but the radio stories are always near and dear to my heart. So, Chuck, before we get into the festivities, the proceedings, let me ask you the opening question. So if you could take a walk with someone, living or dead, who would you take a walk with and where would you take that walk?

[Chuck Nolan]

Oh, so this is the part where I should say, like John Lennon, right?

[Buzz Knight]

No, say what you want.

[Chuck Nolan]

We walked down Penny Lane and I'd ask him, when you wrote yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog's eye, what did that mean? Exactly.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

But instead I'm going to say my dad. I lost my dad when I was 25 years old. We did not have the best relationship. I was the youngest of four. I think after the third one, maybe they had had enough of kids. But there I was. And he was the kind of guy who was really into security. He had a very safe job, despite the fact that he went to Holy Cross College. He had. He was like a four letter athlete. Track and field, football, hockey. He was offered a minor league NHL contract, turned it down because he had to go to Buffalo because that was taking a chance. He had a very secure job with the United States Postal Service. So I was going to Worcester State College, majoring in economics, looking forward to an enriching career of macro and microeconomics, but it just wasn't for me. And I used to go past the radio station. It looked really cool. There's all that equipment in there. They're blasting rock music. But I was way too. Too introverted to actually go in there and ask what they were doing. So I applied to the Connecticut School of Broadcast, again to Hartford. So I had to drive. I would go to class in Worcester during the daytime. At night, I had to drive to Hartford for night classes. And I'm surprised they let me in because the first thing you had to do was read a commercial to see what you sounded like. I'm from Worcester. I had a really heavy accent. So the commercial was Mother Pocket Donuts. And that's exactly how I read it. But then I realized if you had money for the tuition, they would take you anyway. So I ended up going towards that and leaving Worcester State College, and I got my first job at an AM station in Worcester running the religious tapes on Sunday morning. That was it. And it took me a long time to really get going. And he was really angry at me and never seemed to really recover from it. So I'd like to take a walk with him and say it all worked out okay.

[Chase Sapphire Reserve Sponsor]

Amen.

[Audience Member]

Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

Amen to that. Yeah.

Thank you for sharing that. Is it fair to say, though, that asking that question at different times could be producing different answers depending on certain moments? That's what some people say. They say, well, look, today I would say it's my father. Maybe certain points I would reflect on my mother, or maybe it would be a celebrity. So I think the beauty of the question is, a, there's no right or wrong answer, and B, it probably changes by the. By the moment. Sometimes I think you're right.

[Chuck Nolan]

And as you get a little older, you start looking back on things like that family means a lot more.

[Buzz Knight]

And I think he would be looking at this in your conversation and thinking, yeah, it did turn out all right. I had my doubts, but, you know. Did he ever get to hear you on the radio?

[Chuck Nolan]

He did. Being in Worcester, I. When I eventually got up through the ranks of radio, I worked at waf, which was the rock station. It was the really cool rock station in town. And he used to take these walks. And one day he was going past the school bus stop and all the kids were waiting for the school bus. And he asked him, hey, do you guys ever listen? Hey, oh, yeah, yeah, My son's on there, Chuck Nolan. And some of them went, chuck Nolan, that's your son? From that moment, I was in a different light to him. Hey, I talked to these people today. They knew who you were. Yeah, I wasn't making any money at the time, but do you think he Listened? No, absolutely. I'm playing Van Halen. He's not going to listen to that.

[Buzz Knight]

Well, I bet he stunk a listen.

[Chuck Nolan]

Maybe he didn't say so, though. He wouldn't tell me.

[Buzz Knight]

I was fortunate. I got to have my parents listen when I was on two different radio stations.

I95 in Connecticut and WNEW FM in New York, because where I grew up, it was Stanford, Connecticut. So each station was in an earshot. And I remember there were a few moments, some of the bits that we did on the morning show at i95, my mother would like. She would go, no, I don't like that you had mud wrestling women on the station. Didn't sound right.

[Chuck Nolan]

The audience loved it, though.

[Buzz Knight]

The audience loved it. But my mother. Not necessarily. I used to use my mother for a bit, actually.

[Chuck Nolan]

You put her on the air, she.

[Buzz Knight]

Would do concert announcements. And one of them was when David Bowie came to town. And the beauty of it was she said, david Bowie.

Let her go. Right. That's great, Josephine. Go ahead. Yeah, yeah. So waaf, the first big break in your career?

[Chuck Nolan]

Yep.

[Buzz Knight]

And what time of day were you on?

[Chuck Nolan]

Eventually, when I became full time there, I did afternoon drive. So I was taking people home from 2 to 7pm there's two drive times. Morning drive and afternoon drive. People driving in, people driving home, so I would take them home.

[Buzz Knight]

And what was the. The lineup on AAF in those days?

[Chuck Nolan]

Bob and Zip in the morning, Bob Rivers.

[Buzz Knight]

Bob Rivers, who passed away in the last year. Legendary disc jockey.

[Chuck Nolan]

Then it was Annalisa. She was great. She's in Chicago now. Then it was me, and then it was Ian o', Malley, who went on to marry the daughter of a billionaire. And on Facebook, he likes to share photos and videos of him on their ship. Really? Oh, my God.

[Buzz Knight]

Oh, my God.

[Chuck Nolan]

He did all right.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. Yeah. So at aaf, how long were you there?

[Chuck Nolan]

I was there probably eight years.

[Buzz Knight]

And then we went to Florida after that.

[Chuck Nolan]

I did. I. I wanted to break out and see if I could make it on my own because I grew up in Worcester. I enjoyed it, but I wanted to move up into a bigger market, make some more money. So this offer came along. Miami. My God, Miami in January. That must be amazing. So I went down there, interviewed. They offered me the job to work at 97 GTR, the Rock and Roll Animals. And I was on the afternoon. Six months later, they blew up the whole station. They changed the format into like an easy listening kind of a station. They fired everybody, but they felt bad for me that they Brought me down from Boston for a six month job. So they made me the morning man. But they wanted to change my name. So there's no affiliation with the old station. So I said, I don't know what name I want to use. They said, what's your middle name? And I thought.

No. I became Chuck Michaels.

It's so awful. Chuck Michaels, Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

Now how did your. Did you sound smoother?

[Chuck Nolan]

I did.

[Buzz Knight]

I turned it on more with the velvet voice. Then what was the deal?

[Chuck Nolan]

South Florida's coast, 97.3 FM, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches. Here's Peabo Bryson.

[Buzz Knight]

Now what was worse, Doing that or getting your teeth extracted?

[Chuck Nolan]

That was painful.

Although I made a friend of mine who did mornings at the rock station in town and he had a boat. So we would get off the air at 10 o'.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Clock.

[Chuck Nolan]

By 10:30 we were on his boat and we would cruise up the Intercoastal which was just all bars and clubs. We would stay out way too late.

[Buzz Knight]

Was that Paul Castronova?

[Chuck Nolan]

Paul Castronova, that's correct. Yes. Yep.

[Buzz Knight]

Who's still in the business?

[Chuck Nolan]

He's. And he's still there on the air? Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

And he's an iheart brethren.

[Chuck Nolan]

That's right.

[Buzz Knight]

Right, yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

He's working at Big in Miami. So I.

[Buzz Knight]

Small business, can't you tell?

[Chuck Nolan]

Right.

[Buzz Knight]

We know. Everybody knows someone who knows someone. Right.

[Chuck Nolan]

So I did that for a while and then I realized I really have to get out of here. This is not good for me. I was living the Miami lifestyle so I thought I have to get back to civilization. So I started looking for a job back here and that's when the afternoon job opened up at WZLX and I came back.

[Buzz Knight]

Now I cannot take the credit for hiring him on wzlx. There was a. Was it John Schombi, who is also dear friend still in contact with him, a Nashville consultant for talent and artists. Actually he has an art, a country artist that he manages. But John Schombi deserves the credit for bringing Chuck Nolan to the wzlx. Before we get into zlx, I do have to ask you.

What was the first moment you remember growing up that you were deeply connected with music? That you knew somehow music was gonna be in your blood, in your life. Not necessarily radio, but when did you first connect with music?

[Chuck Nolan]

Being the youngest of four and it was three boys and our tortured sister.

My oldest brother Rick had a great record collection and an incredible stereo system, he giant speakers. He put everything into that thing. We were under strict orders never to Touch it. So as soon as he left, of course I'd go through his album, start playing the music. Aerosmith and the Doors and all this stuff. And he started putting little slips of paper into the albums to see if they fell out, to see if anybody touched his sacred album. If they did, he would just beat the crap out of it.

So that's where I really started to like music like that. But I guess my first love of radio was we were all three boys crammed into a tiny room. It was just mattresses on every wall. And he used to like to listen to radio at night to fall asleep. And there was a guy on the air called Larry Glick on wbz and he would just tell UFO stories and ghost stories all night. And I'm a little kid, it scared the crap out of me. But it was fascinating. And I could picture everything that he said in my mind. And I really loved that kind of storytelling. And it kind of got me interested in radio.

[Buzz Knight]

So did you have a plan B?

[Chuck Nolan]

I guess so. If this didn't work out.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

So to make my father happy, I save that.

[Buzz Knight]

It comes up later. I'm going to ask you about the plan B later. I just realized I was stepping on my own line of questioning. All right, Teaser. That was a teaser coming up. Yeah, coming up. So let's get to the ZLX years, the great years. So.

You settled in immediately to Afternoon drive. And the radio station was already a solid, well known brand. But I can only attest to getting there in 92 and observing the station. And when you get hired as a program director, which I was, you're there to sort of assess who's there, decide who's a keeper, who's not. So I knew instantly there was a keeper. And Chuck Nolan. I'm not sure I knew necessarily the other keepers. We'll leave that.

[Chuck Nolan]

Really?

[Buzz Knight]

We'll leave that.

[Chuck Nolan]

That's interesting because when you do a radio show, you have to record your show. And every now and then you have to go into the program director's office and do what's called an air check. And you sit there and you listen to your show with the program director while you're staring at the floor.

And you're cringing at some of the stuff that you said. And he's not saying anything. And then he stops it. And then he tells you what you did right, but then he tells you what you did wrong and how you can improve.

You were good, though.

[Buzz Knight]

There wasn't much to look, there's always things to critique, tighten this up, do this. But he was always like, spot on in terms of what he knew he was going to say. Prepared.

Generally.

No, very well prepared. Once again, I knew I had someone that I had tremendous confidence in to be able to do the work with the audience and then ultimately, you know, work with the advertisers. He had this tremendous benchmark feature. Chuck's Bar and Grill.

[Chuck Nolan]

Chuck's Bar and Grill, which took them.

[Buzz Knight]

Out all through the Boston metropolitan area. How many of those did you venture?

[Chuck Nolan]

Oh, my God. We used to do them almost every Friday from 5 to 7pm for people to start the weekend. We'd be sponsored by Budweiser. So we would go to bars and we were broadcast live. And by 5 o' clock on a Friday, people are in a pretty good mood. Then they get a couple of beers in them and then I have to be careful what they're saying in the microphone.

[Buzz Knight]

But it would get pretty raucous.

[Chuck Nolan]

But it was a lot of fun getting out there and meeting people. I mean, when you do a radio show, you're in a room by yourself, talking into a piece of metal. You get out there and you meet people and, you know, they talk about things that you said and what fans they are of the radio station and the music that we play. It was a lot of fun.

[Buzz Knight]

Now, there was a time, though, that we needed to have, because of the exterior noises from audience members, we needed to have a delay, right?

[Chuck Nolan]

Yes, we did.

[Buzz Knight]

Like, not right away, but I think we probably got burned with somebody dropping.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yes.

[Buzz Knight]

You know, some F bomb or something. Right.

[Chuck Nolan]

Or S bombs.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes. So rules had to change and suddenly you have to put the seven second delay on.

[Chase Sapphire Reserve Sponsor]

But yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

Chuck's Bar and Grill, a legendary part of afternoon drive on wzlx. Let's play a fast game. This is where my teaser came in. We'll call this the Fast Five. Ready?

[Chuck Nolan]

All right.

[Buzz Knight]

Okay. Number one favorite desert island disc.

[Chuck Nolan]

The one album that I take with.

[Buzz Knight]

Me to a desert island.

[Chuck Nolan]

I would have to say Pink Floyd's Dark side of the Moon.

[Buzz Knight]

Number two, most underrated classic rock band.

[Chuck Nolan]

Black Crows. Christopher Robinson, great vocalist. He's played with all kinds of different bands. He confront any band. He just played with the Joe Perry Project.

[Buzz Knight]

Best concert you ever went to.

[Chuck Nolan]

The Boston Strong concert. Right after the Boston Marathon bombing a month later at the Garden. They put on a show to raise money and almost every huge Boston artist was there. Aerosmith, Jay Giles, Boston.

Jimmy Buffett showed up for it. New Kids on the Block were there. And it was just so Electric. I was helping with some of the emcee duty, so I was backstage and just everybody was so together, and it really. You remember Boston Strong and how it. The city came together so much. That audience at the Garden sold out, was so loud and so together on this. And the band, Boston and Tom Scholz came out and he opened it up with this really heavy guitar solo. ELECTRIC GUITAR VERSION OF THE NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS Went crazy.

[Buzz Knight]

It was a great show, chilling event because it represented something so important to the community. And when you really reflect on it, it was the unifying spirit of community and music at a time that, boy, this community really needed. I have chills thinking about it, and I remember the show as well. All right, number four.

Vinyl, CD or streaming. What's your favorite?

[Chuck Nolan]

My favorite for sound mode.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes.

[Chuck Nolan]

Wow. Does anybody have a turntable?

Yeah. When my daughter was 16 years old, she asked for a turntable for Christmas because I had taken out my old equipment from the basement. My kids, when they were little, had never seen this before. It was magic. It was like a rotary phone. I took it out, hooked it up, took out the album, put it down, put the needle on it, and it started playing music. And they were just staring at it like they were from outer space. But I think vinyl sounds so good. It's got such a richer sound, especially the older albums because they were recorded analog on tape, not digital. So you have a lot more fidelity to it. So I love that. I don't have my turntable hooked up right now, but I would go vinyl, then cd, then streaming for quality, for sound quality. And I don't know about you guys, but my daughter listens to music on her phone, on the phone speaker. She'll walk around listening to music on that. Like, you know, you can put that, you can Bluetooth that onto one of the many speakers we have around it. This is fine. It's not fine. Gotta sound it. Get a really good sound out of it, not out of your phone.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, well, it's. Different generation.

[Chuck Nolan]

Different generation.

[Buzz Knight]

Okay, last question on the Fast five. What was your plan B?

[Chuck Nolan]

My plan B was since my dad was so upset about my chosen career path, I took the civil service exam. That's the test you take to see if you can work for the United States Postal Service. I stupidly scored very high. They hired me right away. I was a summer replacement letter carrier for the town of West Boylston, and I had a truck, I had a uniform, and I had my mail, and I was out there. Over the course of three months, I got bitten twice. Each time was the same thing. Delivering a package.

And they're coming to the door to get him. Like, oh wait, wait. And it was always, he doesn't bite, don't. He just. He just barks. And as soon as the door opens, they would just be on my leg tearing it open. So I really didn't like it and I didn't want to do it. I wanted to pursue this, although I was really having trouble getting started. But I couldn't do it. I just. It wasn't in me. So when I told my dad I was quitting the post office, he didn't talk to me for maybe a month.

That was my Plan B was to go back to the post office, I guess.

[Buzz Knight]

Unbelievable.

[Chuck Nolan]

We'll be right back with more of the Taking a Walk podcast.

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[Chuck Nolan]

Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

[Buzz Knight]

But first.

[Chuck Nolan]

There, the last one.

Enjoy a Coca Cola for a pause that refreshes.

And Doug, here we have the Limu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.

[Buzz Knight]

Uh, Limu is that guy with the binoculars watching us.

[Chuck Nolan]

Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you [e-mail] Liberty, Liberty. Liberty. Liberty Savings. Very underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company Affiliates. Excludes Massachusetts.

Welcome back to the Taking a Walk podcast.

[Buzz Knight]

So you've made a tremendous career move. I must say, I was happy when I heard this news. I was a little. It bothered me a little bit, I gotta say. Because the dirty secret is there was a period in my time running WZLX that I wanted this guy to move from afternoons to mornings. And he rebuffed me. I did quickly too. Wasn't even a conversation. It wasn't even a negotiation.

[Chuck Nolan]

It's true.

[Buzz Knight]

What changed in your life that made you want to wake up at three in the morning?

[Chuck Nolan]

Oh, my God, it is brutal. How many get up at 3:30 this morning? Did you really?

[Audience Member]

Yeah, I work at Starbucks.

[Chuck Nolan]

Oh.

There you go then. You know. Do you take naps during the afternoon already? Yeah, yeah, See, you gotta. I'm into the napping lifestyle though. But it can't be more than 45 minutes.

[Sophie Cunningham]

No.

[Chuck Nolan]

Or else you screwed up. Yes, yes.

So after my kids got older, went to school, it was like, all right, I'll think about it now. Because I really didn't. I was always a night guy. I was always up watching late night TV and going out and having fun. So I wanted to continue that. But it was always a show that sounded kind of fun. And after Covid, we have this beautiful complex out in Medford. They spent millions on it. It looks like Google Campus. There was nobody there anymore. So I would drive alone from Hopkinton into Medford, do my show alone, drive back home alone, month after month after month. And I was like, wow, I'm not interacting with anybody, but I'm talking into this microphone. So I started thinking about maybe doing a morning show again. And they had also been pursuing me for a while. And I tried out in the afternoon with Danielle Murr, who used to be on WAF and wei working with Greg Hill. And I had never met her before. She's from the North Shore. She grew up under the flight path of Logan Airport. She has a strange obsession with planes. And we just hit it off right away. What I liked about her was she insulted me on the air immediately and I thought that was great. And she's super intelligent and funny and quick and it just worked. It's a chemistry thing. When you wanted me to do the morning show with this other person, there was no chemistry there. It just didn't feel right. This just felt right. And we had to add a third person to this. And he's actually my boss, Tyler, but he's from Rhode Island. Grew up in the shadow of some of the finest three deckers in Rhode Island. And he sounds like it too. He's funny, but he's a little on the more brusque side. So it's a nice compliment to the three of us. So we started talking about doing it and then it started to happen. And the first show we did together, it just felt right. It's just this dance that you do with three people talking on the radio. Try not to step on each other. How long should we go? Get out of it. And it works. It's a lot of fun. I'm having fun.

[Buzz Knight]

Well, it sounds like you're having fun. It's seven months so far.

[Chuck Nolan]

Seven months, right.

[Buzz Knight]

Which I'm sure has flown by.

[Chuck Nolan]

It has, except for the getting up at 3:30 in the morning part.

[Buzz Knight]

But it's fun engaging with an audience.

Especially early, kind of thinking about the way people are commuting, leading their lives and. And how you're carrying them through that and giving them something to look forward to, put a smile on their face. It sounds fantastic.

[Chuck Nolan]

Thank you.

[Buzz Knight]

It sounds naturally.

Funny and engaging. It's not forced. My ears are sometimes critical, as you know, and because that's what I had to do, that was my job to do that for radio stations. I've never heard it sound forced. It has a great flow to it, a great energy. I look forward to listening to it. So hats off to you and the whole crew there. Thank you for what's going on. It's fair to say when you program a radio station for 10 years and then you ultimately cross town and compete against that radio station, you're kind of competing sort of against yourself a little bit because you built.

[Chuck Nolan]

It's like you left a child behind.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. So did I, in my time of competition, want to, you know, beat the station's pants off?

[Chuck Nolan]

Of course.

[Buzz Knight]

But did I always root for the ZLX crew and Chuck and the team. Absolutely. You know, that's, that's, that's the odd part about when you turn around and do the role that I had. But ZLX is a, I say in, in America, one of the, the top classic rock stations, without question. So you're talking to the man leading the charge there in the morning show on one of America's best. And he's one of the best in, in town. You've been in this town for 20 plus years.

[Chuck Nolan]

30 plus.

[Buzz Knight]

30 plus years.

[Chuck Nolan]

It's crazy for such. It really is an insecure business. People move around all the time. I've been in the same place for three decades. That's crazy.

[Buzz Knight]

What's changed about Boston? Hmm.

[Chuck Nolan]

Well, let's see. Aside from the way things look, the Gardens changed names several times.

I don't know. It's changed, but it hasn't. It's still such a big music city. I mean, you got a college town, you got. People want to see live music all the time. There's not as many rock clubs as there used to be, but music is still a driving force in this town.

[Buzz Knight]

It'S fair to say. Traffic was bad then and is still bad now.

[Chuck Nolan]

Except now it's bad all the time. Used to be just during drive time, but now it's bad all the time.

[Buzz Knight]

All the time.

[Chuck Nolan]

Everybody has different schedules.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. So you've had the opportunity in your career to interview some pretty interesting folks. There's a couple I'm going to mention, but I want you to highlight some of your favorites as well. First of all, I can't help but think of the fact Chuck and I were out. He was covering the Grammys quite a few years ago. We took a road trip to LA to cover the Grammys. Had a spectacular time. Had too much fun actually. And lo and behold, as he was doing his show, suddenly Jon Stewart becomes available to talk to. Now this is very early on in Jon Stewart's career. What do you recall about that experience interviewing him? It was pretty quick, right? It was sort of.

[Chuck Nolan]

It was very quick.

[Buzz Knight]

A breeze through one of the. They call it like radio row when multiple people come through.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah. When they put these things together, you have radio stations from all over the country all lined up, I think. Were you in the forum at that time?

[Buzz Knight]

Yep.

[Chuck Nolan]

So they bring in guests and they go from one radio station to another. And Jon Stewart was hosting the Grammys, wasn't he?

[Buzz Knight]

I wasn't showing.

[Chuck Nolan]

I think he was hosting. So he was there for rehearsals. So he walked in and there's this big, you know. Oh, it's Jon Stewart. There's Jon Stewart. And he's saying hi to everybody. And I remember, was it you or me? We went over and approached him like, hey, you know, from Boston. Want to go on the radio?

[Audience Member]

Real.

[Buzz Knight]

Oh, the radio.

[Chuck Nolan]

And he sat down and he was just so spontaneous and really funny. Just off the cuff.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

You could see why he was so successful at what he does.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

But I thought he was great.

[Buzz Knight]

Me, too. I still think he's great. Actually, that. At that event, actually at the Grammys.

That was my first and only opportunity to see Madonna perform. Do you recall Madonna being out there on stage? I do think she did the opening. The opening act.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah, yeah, that's right.

[Buzz Knight]

Of course. We were up in the. The nosebleeds, for sure.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah. No, that's. That was great. I've done that. I broadcast live from the Rock and Roll hall of Fame induction ceremonies when they had them at the Waldorf Astoria. I've had a chance to do my show in so many cool places.

[Buzz Knight]

Who did you have at the hall of Fame ceremony? Do you recall?

[Chuck Nolan]

It was the year Paul McCartney went in, and Peter Wolf, the lead singer of the Jay Giles Band, came to New York with me, and he was my broadcast partner. So we were set up in the hallway. He knows everybody. So as we're sitting there and artists are passing by on their way in, every single person. He just had to say hi, and they came over and would talk to us. And I was sitting there in awe of Peter Wolf. Like, oh, my God, nobody has said no to you. It's like, yeah, I know a lot of people. I thought that was the coolest thing. Yeah, yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

He has a great biography book out. It's great stories, by the way, the Peter Wolf biography. Yeah, yeah. Back to the LA Experience. What do you recall about our encounter with this gentleman by the name of Ed McMahon? Now, just for the audience, I don't know if you know who Ed McMahon was, but there was this show called Johnny Carson that used to be on. And Ed McMahon was Johnny Carson's sidekick.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah, Johnny Carson was the Jimmy Fallon show, several hosts earlier.

[Buzz Knight]

It's funny how we're explaining this, but. So did Ed McMahon come on as part of the radio row, or did we just see him? We saw him.

[Chuck Nolan]

We did. I remember vividly.

[Buzz Knight]

Tell the story.

[Chuck Nolan]

We had our rental car. We're totally lost, driving around Hollywood, and we're coming around a corner and he's standing by the stoplight. And Ed McMahon had a saying that he Used to say. And we said it to him, hi, O.

And he said it back.

[Buzz Knight]

He said it back. But he said it back in. As dispirited away as possible. Impossible. It was actually kind of sad. He went, hey, yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

But he said it back. He.

[Buzz Knight]

You could tell he had heard that line before.

[Chuck Nolan]

His whole life, right?

[Buzz Knight]

His whole life.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

What a nice man.

[Chuck Nolan]

Very nice man.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. What? But other than his laugh, I'm not sure what he. What? He. He had a great laugh, but other than that, I'm not sure what he did.

[Chuck Nolan]

He was just there to laugh at Johnny Carson's jokes.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

And the rest was history for.

[Chuck Nolan]

That's it. Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. Is there anybody you haven't interviewed that you wish you can spend time and interview?

[Chuck Nolan]

You know, for our big bands like we play Led Zeppelin. I've interviewed Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for the Rolling Stones.

[Buzz Knight]

You just flashed on something.

Chuck used to do a very funny imitation, I remember, of Jimmy Page. Do you mind hitting us with that? With that British accent?

[Chuck Nolan]

Jimmy Page was completely different from Robert Plant. Robert Plant was the nicest guy. He's the lead singer. I mean, Robert Plant, when he was 19 years old, leading Led Zeppelin. Oh, my God. He peeled the paint off the wall with his voice. But he was so humble and nice. And I expected the same from Jimmy Page. He was not nice at all. It was a very tough interview. He seemed insulted everything that I asked him. And I just made some goofy question up about, hey, if you could zip down and get an Egg McMuffin at McDonald's with somebody, who would you? And he just came back with an Egg McMuffin.

The hell are we doing here? And that was the end of that. So embarrassed. Oh, my God.

[Buzz Knight]

All right, go back to the interviews. I flashed on that when I remember your imitation. I'm sorry to put you on the spot.

[Chuck Nolan]

That's all right. For the Stones, I've interviewed Keith Richards, who is, again, really nice guy. Very humble. Guy's a legend. It's amazing that he's still alive. He has no business being alive with the lifestyle that he's led. I would want to interview Mick Jagger, but I haven't. But I hear he's a very tough interview because Mick Jagger is one of those guys that has been knighted. He's Sir Mick. And everyone asks Keith Richards, why haven't you been knighted? He's like, I don't want that. That's garbage. But Mick Jagger takes it very, very seriously. And I hear he is rather aristocratic. But I'd like to talk to him.

[Buzz Knight]

That would be good.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah.

[Buzz Knight]

What about comedians? Since Boston is such a great comedy town, have you had many comedians come through that you've spoken to?

[Chuck Nolan]

I used to. Not as many anymore.

[Buzz Knight]

They notoriously don't like coming on the air and giving their material away.

[Chuck Nolan]

And that's what makes it a tough interview.

[Buzz Knight]

Right.

[Chuck Nolan]

Because you're feeding them their lines, thinking they're going to say it, but they're saving for the stage. But Bill Burr is really good. I've interviewed him. He's very funny, very quick. Dennis Leary, same thing. These guys are so professional. They just go with it. Some of the smaller comics seem to struggle a little bit on the air because they need an audience.

[Buzz Knight]

Right.

[Chuck Nolan]

They miss the laugh. They deliver the line. They don't get a reaction. It's hard, and they don't know how to handle that. So comics can be a tough interview.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, they clam up.

[Chuck Nolan]

They clam up.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to take some questions.

But before we take some questions, I want to ask you a final question. If you could give this group here at Emanuel College, and then those in the audience who maybe they're not necessarily.

Radio majors, but maybe they're interested in media somehow. And as they're carving their careers, what piece of advice would you give to them as they're pondering the world in soon to be 2026?

[Chuck Nolan]

If you really have a passion for something, just go for it. Give it a shot. Because if you don't, you might look back and regret the fact that you never tried. And I really think you have to exercise the creative part of you. And if that's through social media or I hear there's radio equipment here that's not being used at this school.

You know, you could start a podcast or, you know, do your own radio show that you stream. But get in there and give it a try. Cause it actually is a lot of fun. I can't believe I've done what I'm doing for so long. There's no reason I should be doing this. It's just crazy because I actually got a chance to make a living doing something that was fun, which is so rare. And if you can find that, you're good.

[Buzz Knight]

Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Nowhere. Thank you.

[Chuck Nolan]

Thank you.

[Buzz Knight]

So this is the question time. Who's got a question?

[Audience Member]

So for your show, do you ever answer the phone, like, have people call in? All right, what was, like, the wildest? Like.

[Chuck Nolan]

You get some people who call in really hammered, really hammered, and they've been out all night now that I'm doing the morning show, they're still out and they've been out all night. And they want to talk to you. And they want to talk to you a lot. We put a lot of people on the air live because I really think that's important is make the audience a part of the show. So we're constantly putting the number out there. You can go on the app and you can leave messages. These 30 second messages, we call them talkbacks and we get a lot of them. Some people are totally unprepared when we put them on the air. Some people use very colorful language. There are certain words you cannot say on the air. So we have this. It's called a dump button. It's this big red button. If you say something, some people can relate to this. You got to hit that button. And it gets rid of the last eight seconds. Whatever you said.

I find I use that a lot. I'm really surprised how much I didn't in the afternoon. I would put people on live in the afternoon, but I never had to use that, except if I was out in a bar or something. But I'm shocked in the morning how often I have to use that. Maybe it's because people are pissed off, driving into work. I don't know. I think that's it.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes.

[Chuck Nolan]

Is there any, like, big mistakes or embarrassing moments that. Oh, God, so many.

It's early in my career. I'm there right now. I can picture it. I was on the air. You have to make sure you turn the microphone off when you're done. And I was doing a show, it was a Saturday night show and I just finished doing a break. I took a phone call and it was a young lady who was very friendly and she wanted to talk to me for a long time. There wasn't a lot going on. So I was talking with her. Hold on a second. I got to do another break. And I do a break, get back to her, talk to her.

This happened like three or four times. The last time I did not turn off the microphone. So I go back to talking to her and it's all going out over the air. And it was a small station phone, didn't ring a lot, but all of a sudden they're all ringing like, wow, this is great. I'm doing really well. Hold on a second. I gotta take a call. First one, you know, we can hear everything you say. And I looked down and I saw the green light. Just, oh, my God. The shot of adrenaline that went through. I was trying to Review everything that I had said. I just turned the mic off and I didn't say anything the rest of the. And I. I just played music. It was so horrifying.

[Buzz Knight]

I love it.

[Chuck Nolan]

What a great story. Oh, terrible.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes.

[Audience Member]

What would you say has, like changed in music industry since you guys have like started working in it? I feel like the culture around musicians and bands, like, isn't the same as like, or at least it looks like it used to be. So, like, how has it changed and how has that affected the radio?

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah, well, maybe you can help me with this too. But back then you had a lot of help from the record companies. They would promote you, they would take you out on tour, they would set up your dates, they took care of everything. We had all these record reps that would regularly come by pushing, hey, you gotta play this. This is new. A new one from whatever band or artist. I think now artists are mainly on their own. They're self promoting, which has to be so tough. And you don't make the money from record sales like you used to back in the day. Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Eagles, they made millions selling albums and CDs and stuff. And now you're on Spotify and you get fractions of pennies for a play. You can't make any money at that. You really have to make your money from touring. And I think somebody like Taylor Swift is a genius at that. I mean, she could go out all year if she wanted to and sell out every place she goes, but that's really where she's going to make her money is from, is from performing because it's just not there anymore in sales.

[Buzz Knight]

I think the rise of diy independent artists who do everything themselves to build their audience, basically, and that includes their social media and their merchandise. And, you know, they don't have big management and big publicists. There's so many independent artists that are so proud with big audiences. I was just talking to you guys earlier about the band ajr, who is a band that would, you know, many people certainly would go, I've not heard of them on the radio. Well, you're not going to hear them on the radio. You're going to find them in different places and that's how they created their audience. So I think it's the rise of independence is what we've certainly seen, which I think is a good thing. We know somebody, our friend Chris Paquin's son, Will Paquin, has become a independent artist on his own who is touring Europe right now.

[Chuck Nolan]

Oh, wow.

[Buzz Knight]

Who has found his Audience who has his strong social following. And to your point, on, on Spotify. Yeah, the figures, I think I heard the Foo Fighters for a year of their Spotify royalties. I think it's, it's $700,000 or something like that, which for a band like that, that sells out millions of plays. Yeah. So that tells you a lot when there's a disparity.

[Chuck Nolan]

But also now artists can make music at home. You get pro tools and you get a decent, you know, a basement or something. You put eggshells all around it and get the sound just right. You can make an album at home. And so many artists like Noah Kahn out of Vermont, you know, making music at home. And then if it's really good, maybe a record company will pay for the studio time. But back in the day, bands used to disappear into a studio for a year to make an album. You can do that in a week.

[Buzz Knight]

Yeah, they spent the record company's money foolishly on the wrong things.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah, for sure.

[Buzz Knight]

Yes.

[Audience Member]

We talked about it a little bit in class. But how. I think a lot of us can relate that when you think of radio, it's like a nostalgic thing of something from when you were kids and having our parents play in the morning to things like that, but something that really me don't think to play listen to on our own time. Do you guys think about that when you're reporting, like who you're targeting and what your audience may be?

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah. Radio stations have their target demographic that they go for. We are male, a male rock station. Our main target for advertising is 25 to 54. Now we'll get younger listeners, we'll get older listeners, but that's the pocket that you want where a station like KISS is targeting females younger 18 to 34, although they do really well, 25, 54. So I guess that's a target for them too. But yeah, they do so much research about who's listening. We get, we get ratings now every week to find out how we're doing and how many people are out there. They have these meters that they will give you these portable people meters that picks up a tone that's sent through the radio that you can't hear and register what station you're listening to and for how long. And that's what our ratings are based on. And it's a crazy system because there's not enough of them out there.

[Buzz Knight]

And there actually are. There are actually daily ratings that you could look at as well. So it's so micro focused. You could actually even Go down to the day. I will tell you, based on your question too. And I think it's been a key to ZLX's success over, over time. And I certainly think about it with my podcast as well, that even though, you know, there's a certain target audience, always go deliberately younger.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yes.

[Audience Member]

Than.

[Buzz Knight]

Than your target. Because.

A certain segment is going to get older and fall off of what I call the demographic cliff. So you need an influx, always of newer listeners, newer audiences at all times, discovering you. I think classic rock benefits in a big way because so much of the music from these generations shows up in a TV show, shows up in a movie. So suddenly a song becomes popular that was, you know, maybe a library track on a radio station. So, yeah, I think creators certainly think about this a lot. And Chuck would be thrilled if all of you would try his morning show out. He would be beyond thrilled.

[Chuck Nolan]

6 to 10am 6 to 10.

[Buzz Knight]

6 to 10am 100.7 because it is important not only to be in touch with your generation, but also for them to kind of, you know, sample and be part of what we have going on.

[Chuck Nolan]

And radio sees the writing on the wall that, you know, the audience, the younger audience is shrinking. So we really push our free iHeartRadio app. You can stream every radio station in the company and other companies as well. I think jumped on it too, because I think eventually terrestrial radio will go away. It's so expensive to have towers everywhere that it will just become a streaming thing. As a matter of fact, I think Tesla is dropping FM radio from the 2026 models because they want to encourage streaming. You'll be able to use apps and get them in your car. So we push that all the time. You know, you can stream us on the free iHeartRadio app.

It's gonna take a long time before terrestrial radio goes away, but it is going that way.

[Buzz Knight]

But that's a really good question. Okay, sure.

[Audience Member]

I'm just curious the benefits of working in commercial ring yield versus public regular.

[Chuck Nolan]

Financially, it pays better. Although WGBH has a great setup. I love that sign as you're coming down the pike too. But they just went through all these financial cuts federally and they laid off a lot of people.

So you notice they're doing a lot more fundraising as well. Public radio is great. I put them as my presets in my car. But it's a struggle now more than ever to really depend on people donating to keep it going.

[Buzz Knight]

And I think to add on to that, you're fortunate here to Have a strong public radio community that even through the challenges that they're going through, is. Is going to survive it. It will be hurt somehow by the cuts, but it will survive it. Because, you know, when you think of these stations that are in this community, they're really embedded in the. In the community. Yep.

[Audience Member]

I have a question on behalf of my son. He's at school and couldn't bake it today, but when he heard I was going to see a podcaster today, he wants a podcast for Christmas. And I'm just curious, what would you recommend to somebody who is thinking of starting a podcast? Is there some sort of secret sauce, how to go about it to make it work?

[Buzz Knight]

Yes. Resilience, passion.

Consistency.

Because when I say that those particularly the consistency part, they have something they call pod fade. This is the people who do 10 podcasts and then decide, I can't do anymore. I can't keep up with it. I don't have any audience. They get frustrated and they give it up. And a large percentage have pod fade. So I would say those three things would be the priorities. And of course, find a niche as well. You can't necessarily be brought into the market. You need a particular niche and have fun with it. Feel free, have freedom. That's something. When we started in radio, Chuck and I, there was more freedom that the individuals were allowed. Then as companies got tighter and more researched and there was more at stake, unfortunately, they took those freedoms away and probably took it away too far. So he should enjoy the freedom as well.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yeah, I agree.

[Buzz Knight]

One more.

[Chuck Nolan]

Yep.

[Audience Member]

I hope that you guys are still listening to the radio for yourself or if you have more transition into, like streaming and if you are still listening to the radio, what are your, like, go to radio stations that you guys.

[Chuck Nolan]

Good question. All right, let's see. On my radio, I have. I really like wers, the Emerson station. Ken west, our buddy Ken west, program director, he's a great job with that. And I always like listening to the. The college announcers. I'm kind of judging how they're doing. I mean, you're going to screw up and all, but I like to hear the passion in it. Like, you really are performing and you got to put something into it. I really like how they do that. So I have ERS, I have KISS, 108, WBZ 1030 for news.

What's the one out of Haverhill? The River? I have that one. I have the sports hub. I have eei, the sports stuff.

Those are the big ones I have. What about you?

[Buzz Knight]

I don't drive as much. Sports hub. Bzam. ZLX probably would be mine. Oh, I have ZLX EEI too. But, you know, less commuting. Do it. One more quick one.

[Audience Member]

Oh, yeah. If I remember correctly, you were saying that you were pretty introverted and, like.

[Sophie Cunningham]

I feel like your job now is.

[Audience Member]

Like, worst nightmare for an introvert. So how did you know about making that job?

[Chuck Nolan]

That's a great question. It's so weird. When I'm on the radio, I'm a different person. I remember one of the interviews I did with Ozzy Osbourne when I could understand what he was saying because he was. He had such a thick accent and mumbling and all that. But I was asking about what it's like to go out on stage still to this day, selling out concerts and all that. And he said, without all the swears, that I had to keep hitting the button on. He says, I'm absolutely terrified. And that surprised me. So why are you terrified? Says, because I want to do a good job. And it just showed me that. That he cares. I think when I'm in the studio, it's a different feeling. It's like you're kind of in control. It's a comfortable place, but you really want to do a good job. So there is a terrifying aspect to that. Like me coming out here in my personal life and doing this is absolutely terrifying. But I said, yes, he's never going.

[Buzz Knight]

To speak to me again.

[Chuck Nolan]

I'm never going to speak to him again. But I can get up at the Garden in front of 16,000 people and introduce a band, and it's great. I can do that. But it's a different feeling. I don't know. It's kind of a switch that you do. I remember one time I met Howard Stern. I thought he was just going to be this bombastic a hole. He didn't make eye contact. He was so shy. It completely blew me away. He was such an introvert. And I've heard him say he is. He's a different personality in real life than he is on the radio.

[Buzz Knight]

Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you, Chuck Nova.

[Chuck Nolan]

Thank you guys very much.

[Buzz Knight]

We have.

A parting gift for you on the way out, courtesy of the Taking a Walk podcast. Obviously. Feel free to check that out anytime as well. Self promotion.

[Chuck Nolan]

Self promotion.

[Buzz Knight]

But thank you to all of you. Thank you to Professor Flynn, to Emanuel College, and to Chuck Nolan.

[Chuck Nolan]

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends. And follow us so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chase Sapphire Reserve Sponsor]

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[Sophie Cunningham]

This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something. Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA in adults with obesity? They may be happening to you without you knowing. If anyone has ever said you snored loudly, or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability and concentration issues, it may be due to osa. OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation. Learn more at. Don't sleep on osa.com. this information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company. This is an iHeart podcast.

[Chuck Nolan]

Guaranteed Human.